


Speed Limits

by skell



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 08:31:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14766134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skell/pseuds/skell
Summary: It starts with a food delivery and ends with a relationship.





	Speed Limits

Something electric builds up inside of him. A jolt courses up and down his spine and he tries to keep it in, keep his voice low and hushed lest the neighbors overhear. The headphones settled atop his ears feel stuffy and warm, and he tries to focus on the soft music streaming from them instead of his growing discomfort. But the urge grows too strong. He knows he’s only delaying the inevitable, that he’s going to have to give in eventually. The words on his laptop screen begin to blur in his vision. Tears well in his eyes as he squeezes them shut and—

Ugh.

He readjusts his eyeglasses and quickly grabs a tissue to wipe himself clean of the warm, thick, and goopy liquid dribbling down his nose and onto his chin. Nothing feels quite as glamorous as having to wipe snot off one's own face. He silently hopes that he’d contained his sneeze enough that he didn’t disturb any of his neighbors. He crumples the used tissue and tosses it to the overflowing trash bin beneath his desk, which had now become a graveyard for tissues and discarded noodle cups. He really needs to take his trash out. But not tonight. No. Tonight, time is of the essence! His paper is due at twelve noon tomorrow and he isn't about to waste a moment trying to get this done. His stomach grumbles in agreement.

He glances at the time displayed on his laptop screen — it’s 11:13 in the evening. Ah, great. He’s missed his usual dinner time, and he gathers that he should probably drink his meds soon too. He’s barely written anything yet for his research paper, but at least the cover page is already 100% completed, his name “Tsukishima Kei” proudly and securely encoded onto the file.

Kei tugs on his sweater sleeves and blindly taps his feet around the space beneath his desk to locate his bedroom slippers. A slight pattering of rain could be heard in the distance as he slips his headphones off and sets them on his desk. His stomach grumbles louder as he trudges the ten or so steps it takes to get to his kitchen, and he couldn’t shake off a feeling of dread as he brought a hand to his fridge and opened the door.

“Of course,” he comments upon seeing the bare insides of his refrigerator, now eerily aglow in a yellow light. He opens up his cupboards only to find discarded plastic containers, some spices, and a couple boxes of tea. He decides to prepare a tea set for himself and heat some water as he considers his options.

It’s raining out and he feels nauseated from the thought of eating more convenience store ramen, so that’s out of the question. The 24-hour grocery store is too many blocks away, and by the time he’d reach back home he’d have wasted too much time and energy that he wouldn’t feel like cooking anymore, so he’d rather not do that either. He takes a sip from his cup, and thankfully the warmth calms his hunger just a smidge.

He takes out his phone. A lot of shops are closing up already, and as he browses the selections on Uber Eats he doesn't feel all too inspired by any of the offerings either. He searches around for fast food places that offer delivery services of their own, but as he looks up the listing for a pizza place he instead starts daydreaming of minced soy meat cutlets drizzled with tomato sauce and served with freshly fried onions, imagines the texture of snap peas and zucchini with a zest of orange, or perhaps coconut curry with pumpkin and beans...

He looks up the website of 8telier, his favorite restaurant, and is redirected to their Instagram page. He oggles the place's menu for the day and feels a sense of joy- yes! _YES!_ Now this is the kind of food he wants to eat. The restaurant is open until two in the morning, which gives him plenty time to spare. Kei scrolls around for a contact number but finds nothing, instead he stumbles upon another user's comment review- "I love your food and can't wait to visit again! It'd be great if you guys were open for delivery too."

A sense of renewed despair threatens to consume him, but he resists the tempting option to just break down crying. Stress, sickness, and now hunger - he can only handle so much.

He takes to a community board to search up other people's late-night food recommendations. After a couple posts about standard app recommendations he's already attempted, he stumbles upon a short write-up for what seemed like a new delivery effort.

"These guys will deliver anything from any place to anywhere else in the city as long as it doesn't exceed 4000 yen per order," one member posts.

"I've tried them before, the only downside is they don't accept big orders and require exact payment each time, but other than that I've always had good experiences with them."

"I see these delivery guys more often than I see some of my friends. 10/10 will recommend"

"A little slower than other options I've tried, but they have a reasonable delivery charge. If you're not too particular about presentation then they're a decent choice."

Seems promising enough. He just wants his food.

He looks up the group's ordering instructions and gets directed to contact them through LINE to book a delivery. His messages are quickly replied to, and he successfully details his order without much fuss. After a quick peek at his wallet he includes some cake in his order too - it wouldn't hurt to give himself a little incentive for the all-nighter that he's inevitably going to attempt to pull off tonight.

Feeling satisfied with his preparations, he finishes his tea and returns to his laptop. It takes a moment for him to settle down after another sneezing fit, and his phone dings with a message just as he starts up his playlist again.

"Good evening Tsukishima-san," the note reads. Their icon is of a flower arrangement. "I am currently on the way to fulfill your order. May I confirm if your apartment is in the building with a coin op laundry on the ground floor?"

Slightly surprised but not entirely concerned by the person's sense of familiarity with his address, Kei answers with a brief, "Yes." After some thought, he adds, "If it's not a bother, please deliver the food to apartment 6 on the second floor. I would meet you by the curb but I'm currently sick, so I would rather not leave my room if possible."

"No worries, we deliver door to door," the other promptly responds.

 

* * *

 

Kei's halfway through his current work playlist when he decides to take a break to stretch. He's added two new pages to his report now and he's about ready to eat some paper if only to fill his stomach with _something_ , but he's already made one too many trips to the toilet so he'd rather not have any more tea for the time being. His phone pings again — it's a message from his delivery man, with a photo attachment of his order neatly wrapped in a paper bag.

The restaurant is about ten minutes away by train and another fifteen on foot, so he gathers that he wouldn't have to wait long before it arrives to him. His mouth waters from the knowledge that he's only moments away from having his meal.

A bright flash splits the sky outside his window, tearing him away from his foodie fantasies, and the once-gentle drizzle instantaneously evolves into a violent downpour. Kei frowns. On some level he worries for his food delivery, but he still hopes it doesn't get too delayed. He wipes his nose clean in anticipation.

He continues working on his writeup to distract himself. His stomach protests and groans to the timing of the pealing thunder. He types up half a page's worth of text before realizing that he's been skipping out on using proper punctuation this whole time. At this point he no longer has the strength to be annoyed at himself. Before he can even check the time again, his doorbell rings and his heart is aflutter. _Food! Food! Finally!_

"Yes, please hold on," Kei calls out as he puts on his slippers again and dashes to the door. He's right by the entryway when he cusses under his breath and rushes back to his bedroom to retrieve his wallet. He's already a little out of breath by the time he opens his apartment door, but he kind of forgets how to breathe anyway.

Who is this guy. He's dressed in all-black, save for the silver spikes that sprout from his leather jacket. Peeks of skin show through the tatters by his knees, but Kei's not about to admit that he spent a split second checking out the guy's legs in the first place — besides, he's immediately distracted by how the guy brushes away the damp bangs from his face, drawing attention to the freckles across his cheeks and causing the light to catch on the metallic on his ears.

But Kei cannot, for the life of him, look away from the other's piercing eyes, which had been lined meticulously with sharp black wings.

"Um, are you Tsukishima-san?" the boy says in a soothing voice, a bit of a disconnect from his appearance. He has a helmet in his hands, and he moves to tuck it under his arm. "I have a delivery for him."

"Yes," Kei nods. He tries to keep his cool, at least expression-wise, to play off how he'd basically just been caught staring. The awkward silence does little to help him form sentences in his mind. He studies the drenched state of the other's hair once more and says, "Did you not wear your helmet?"

Nice. He feels like slapping himself. That was totally not what he wanted to say. But he supposes that it's okay since the delivery man lets out a laugh and Kei's stomach is full of acidic butterflies.

"Yes. Sorry," the guy smiles as he removes his thermal backpack and takes out Kei's order from the bag. "I had to park my bike a little far from the restaurant, and it started pouring suddenly on my way out. Your food should be fine though."

"That's okay, thank you for your hard work, " Kei replies. The other man smiles as he says the delivery total and Kei dutifully passes the amount to the other's gloved hand. "Uh, would you like a tissue or something?"

"No, no, that's fine," he says with a shake of his head. "I'll get caught in the rain again the moment I step outside anyway. But thanks, enjoy your meal!"

The delivery man gives a quick bow and half-scurries away. Kei tries to shake out of his trance state as he withdraws back into his room.

He sets the paper bag onto his desk and robotically reaches into it. He's stunned, but he still wants his food now. Maybe eating will make him forget all his stress and shame. He feels a smooth and thin stick-like object that's too odd to be a chopstick, and he takes it out to find that it's actually the stem of a single daisy. He reaches into the bag again and finds the delivery group's calling card, his cutlet order, some actual utensils, a modest slice of strawberry shortcake, and a mysterious bowl he doesn't remember ordering.

Kei musters up some courage to message his delivery man about it, to see if there might have been a mishap. A small part of him wonders if the guy would drive back to get it, which means he could see him again and maybe get a good look of him this time, the thought of which makes him feel kinda silly for considering it. He feels even sillier when he jumps in his seat after receiving a new message notification just moments after.

"Ah, you mentioned being sick so I ordered their soup of the day for you. I hope it's not a bother!" the other replied. "If you ever need food delivered again, please don't hesitate to contact us! Enjoy your meal!"

A trail of snot drips from his nose. Kei almost forgets that he's supposed to be hungry.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've reached this far, thank you so much for reading!! I haven't written in so long... Somehow figuring out a title and summary was harder than starting the fic itself........ This is an AU I've been thinking about for a long time though, so really I just needed to get in the mood to write it out. I'm just going to have fun with myself and enjoy the writing process this time, but I'll try not to take too long to update too—! I'll update my other fic eventually as well ;v;


End file.
